Compliments rise and complaints fall for Solihull Council
From Councillor Ken Meeson, Leader of the Council on 14 August 2012
The amount of complaints received by Solihull Council almost halved last year.
During 2011/12, the Council received 781 complaints – a 47% decrease compared with the previous year, when 1487 complaints were recorded.
The reduction in complaints is closely linked to a significant reduction in the amount of complaints about the Council’s waste and recycling services during 2011/12.
This fall in complaints about waste and recycling came despite the fact that improvements to the recycling services across the borough were introduced last September, when kerbside collections were reconfigured so that all recyclable materials were collected on the same day, once a fortnight.
Solihull Council currently has four stages when dealing with a complaint; stages one and two are informal, stage three is formal while stage four is reviewed by the Chief Executive.
In 2011/12, the majority of the Council’s complaints were dealt with at stage one or two. 10 progressed to stage three, and nine went through to stage four.
From September, a new, two-stage complaints procedure will be introduced.
As well as a fall in complaints, the Council also saw a sharp increase in the amount of compliments it received during 2011/12. The 884 recorded compliments are 21% more than the previous year.
In particular there was a significant increase in the amount of compliments relating to the helpfulness of council staff, rising from 171 in 2010/11 to 413 in 2011/12.
The Council service areas that received the highest number of compliments were customer services, waste and recycling, highways maintenance and Streetcare.
Councillor Ken Meeson, Leader of the Council, said: “These results are very encouraging and are a testament to the hard work put in by our staff and partners to ensure they do the best they can for the residents of the borough. The introduction of a new, two-stage complaints procedure from September will also make the process quicker and give our staff more flexibility to deal with complaints in a more effective manner.
“I am particularly pleased to see such a large increase in the amount of compliments about the helpfulness of our staff, and have no doubts that we will want to improve even further next year.”
The Council also recently received its Annual Review Letter from the Local Government Ombudsman, which highlighted the Council’s average response time to written enquiries from his office regarding referred complaints. There were only nine complaints, but the Council’s response period was 46.6 days, as opposed to the accepted norm of 28 days.
The letter advised the Council to respond more promptly in the coming year, and steps have already been taken to improve this response time.
Councillor Meeson added: “Whilst there were very few complaints referred to the Local Government Ombudsman, we were disappointed with the news about delays and accept that we need to improve – although it is better to investigate thoroughly rather than rush to meet deadlines. However, we have already taken action to speed up response times and have implemented a new system to monitor the progress of any correspondence with the Ombudsman.”
More information about complaints and compliments related to Solihull Council can be found at www.solihull.gov.uk/democracy/complaints.htm.
Notes to editor
Below are details about Solihull Council’s current four-stage complaints procedure.
Stages one and two are problem solving stages where the emphasis is to try and resolve complaints. The majority of the Council’s complaints in 2011/12 were dealt with at this stage.
If a complaint cannot be resolved at either stage one or two, they can, at the request of the complainant, progress to a formal stage – stage three. This involves a Council officer not connected with the complaint conducting an investigation and 10 complaints progressed to this stage in 2011/12.
If a complainant is still dissatisfied, their complaint can be progressed to the fourth and final stage, which is reviewed by the Chief Executive. In 2011/12, nine complaints made it to this stage.
From September, a new, two-stage process will be introduced, which will make the complaints procedure quicker.
For enquiries from members of the press and media only, please contact Dave Musson on 0121 704 8172
Email: dmusson@solihull.gov.uk